Most UEs currently on the market are dual mode UEs with the ability to connect to both cellular networks and WLANs. For example, a dual mode UE may be capable of connecting to either a 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) cellular network, such as a Long-Term Evolution (LTE) network, or to a WLAN, such as a WiFi network based on the IEEE 802.11 family of standards.
UEs as described herein may comprise or represent any device used for wireless communications. Examples of user equipment that may be used in certain embodiments of the described wireless and mobile networks are wireless devices such as mobile phones, mobile terminals, terminals, stations (e.g. in the IEEE 802.11 standard a UE may be a station (STA)), smart phones, portable computing devices such as lap tops, handheld devices, tablets, net books, computers, personal digital assistants, machine-to-machine devices such as sensors or meters (e.g. wireless devices in which there is no end user associated with the device), and other wireless communication devices that may connect to wireless and/or mobile networks.
Licensed spectrum used for 3GPP cellular networks is a premium commodity with a higher per bit cost compared to the unlicensed WLAN spectrum. Therefore, network operators are increasingly utilizing WLANs as a data offload strategy for 3GPP cellular networks. Therefore, dual mode UEs offered by most network operators dual exhibit a marked preference for connecting via a WLAN for data services rather than a 3GGP network when a WLAN is available.
Due to the inherent preference for WLANs over 3GPP cellular networks, steering a UE to connect to a WLAN is not difficult. However, most UEs dislike moving from a WLAN to 3GPP cellular network for their data service even when the user experience with the WLAN is poor. In such situations, de-authentication techniques can be used to steer a UE from the WLAN and to a 3GPP cellular network. However, forcing UEs to steer away from the WLAN using traditional de-authentication techniques may result in the UEs “blacklisting” the WLAN's Service Set Identifier (SSID). When the UE is de-authenticated, the WLAN may still be visible to the UE and the UE may attempt to reconnect to the WLAN. If the UE is de-authenticated and subsequent attempts to reconnect are ignored, the UE may “blacklist” the WLAN. The UE may also blacklist if the UE is de-authenticated three times within a five minute time window.
Once a UE “blacklists” a WLAN, the UE will consider the WLAN as unavailable. The UE will exclude the “blacklisted” WLAN when subsequently attempting to connect to a communication network even if the “blacklisted” WLAN is available. The UE will not attempt to connect back to the “blacklisted” WLAN until one of the following events happens:
(1) the user explicitly asks for the UE to connect to the “blacklisted” network;
(2) the UE is placed (or automatically goes) in a sleep mode and is then waken; or
(3) a new application is invoked that requires data connection.
The network operator has no control over UE access selection making it difficult to steer the UE back to the WLAN. The operator's inability to control access selection results in sub-optimal utilization of network resources, potential loss of revenue, and poor user experience in congested networks. Thus, for an operator who has deployed both 3GPP cellular networks and WLANs which provide overlapping coverage, it is highly desirable to control which UEs connect to which networks for data services.